1. Technical Field
This disclosure generally relates to a technology for editing an image using an electronic apparatus equipped with an operation display unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus such as a digital multifunction product (MFP) has a touch panel, on which information, such as an operational setting screen and a document state to be output, is displayed. However, when a size of the touch panel is small, it is difficult for a user to operate the image forming apparatus on the touch panel.
To solve the above problem, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-112022 discloses an image forming technique in which an image read by a scanner is divided into areas, such as a text area, a photo area, a drawing area, and a background area, so that a user selects and specifies a target area. When a target area-selection key is pressed, a screen for specifying parameters concerning density or color-tone adjustment is displayed for each selected area, and the density or color-tone adjustment is performed on the image based on the specified parameters to form an adjusted image.
The above technique is effective in improving user-friendliness, because a user can select a desired operation from a selection menu on a setting screen for specifying parameters for each image area.
Although the above technique has the advantage in setting parameters through a touch-panel screen, the user can hardly check a final layout and a final document state before the image is actually printed, because how the edited image will be output is not displayed.
Some users like an operational procedure in which a function menu is displayed first so that the user selects a target function, before specifying a target area. However, the above technique does not satisfy such needs.